Whilst immersed in these transactions, the election in which he was so deeply interested came suddenly to a conclusion, brought about indirectly by his means. The choice of the conclave astonished Italy, for it fell upon an ultramontane cardinal, unknowing and unknown in Rome. Adrian Florent,[*289] a Fleming of humble birth, was a man of mild temper, peaceful habits, and literary tastes. He had been preceptor of Charles V., and held the see of Tortosa. This selection so curiously illustrates the haphazard results, which have not unfrequently baffled both policy and intrigue in papal elections, that we may pause for a moment on the circumstances alleged by Guicciardini to have brought it about. The Medicean party had not strength, at once, to carry their Cardinal, in the face of the old members of the College, who were adverse from introducing the hereditary principle into their selection, yet hoped in time to exhaust the patience or the strength of their seniors. But whilst Medici and Petrucci were thus ingeniously devising delays, news reached them of the Duke of Urbino's descent upon Tuscany, causing them respectively to tremble for their supremacy in Florence and Siena, and to question the policy of procrastinating at the Quirinal, whilst interests so momentous were elsewhere in peril. In this state of matters the Cardinal of Tortosa "was proposed, without any intention of choosing him, but that the morning might be wasted; whereupon his eminence of San Sisto, in an endless oration, enlarged upon his virtues and learning, until some of the members beginning to accede, the others successively followed with more impetuosity than deliberation, whereby he was unanimously then chosen Pope. The very electors could allege no reason why, at a crisis of such convulsions and perils for the papacy, they had selected a barbarian pontiff, so long absent, and recommended neither by previous deserts, nor by intimacy with any of the conclave, to whom he was scarcely known by name, having never visited Italy, nor had he any wish or hope to do so."[290] The Roman populace resented a choice which they felt as an insult, and as the cardinals emerged from durance, they were assailed by execrations of the mob.[*291] [Footnote *289: Adrian Floriszoon, the son of a ship's carpenter named Floris. His education was chiefly theological; humanism had not penetrated Louvain.] [Footnote 290: Guicciardini, lib. xiv.] [Footnote *291: This account of Adrian VI.'s conclave is inaccurate and confused. Cf. CREIGHTON, _op. cit._, vol. VI., pp. 216-222. The Duke of Urbino seems to have had no influence in the conclave.]